Iran Nuclear Weapons Claims Still Need Correcting

Yesterday in USA Today (9/22/13), Aamer Madhani wrote this about the challenges facing Barack Obama:

The president is also trying to take advantage of a diplomatic opening–created by the installation of a new, more moderate president in Iran–to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

As you might know by now, this is misleading; Iran is suspected by some governments of having a nuclear weapons program, but there is no solid intelligence that such a program exists.

USA Today made a similar claim a few months ago; when FAIR activists wrote to the paper, it eventually got around to issuing a correction. But good luck figuring that out; the paper had originally claimed that new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was “known for his negotiating skill over the country’s nuclear weapons program.” The paper’s correction read:

A June 17 story on Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani misstated his previous position. He was a negotiator over Iran’s nuclear program.

There’s basically no chance that any reader of the paper would have been able to know what was being corrected. But if the paper is actually interested in accuracy, they might want to run another correction.

Bob Schieffer (photo: CSIS)

They’re not the only ones who should consider clarifying the record. Here’s CBSFace the Nation host Bob Schieffer (9/22/13):

Rouhani says that Iran does not want and is not pursuing a nuclear weapon. Does anybody take that at face value?

Actually, the burden of proof should be the other way around: Politicians who claim that Iran has such a program should have to prove it. Schieffer obviously doesn’t see the world that way. He’s interviewed people like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and failed to challenge their claims about Iran’s weapons. Indeed, Schieffer presented them as facts, telling viewers about Iran’s “continuing effort to build a nuclear weapon” (FAIR Blog, 7/15/13).

So Schieffer is indeed skeptical of government claims. Iran‘s government, that is.

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Activism Director and and Co-producer of CounterSpinPeter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR's magazine Extra! and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR's syndicated radio show CounterSpin. He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly (Seven Stories Press, 2003). Hart has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Associated Press. He has also appeared on Showtime and in the movie Outfoxed. Follow Peter on Twitter at @peterfhart.

On a story about Iran at iolDOTcoDOTza , someone using the name “Justice Schwart” posted the following comment:

“India’s nuclear capability is more of a threat to the world than what Iran is.”

To this someone using the name “Lan Davis” replied:

“Agreed, India should suffer the sanctions due to the damage it is doing to our planet with its ever growing population which in turn is creating food and water shortages. Increased pollution, increased deforestation. Migrant Indians are everywhere and are taking over communities all over the world.
We need this to stop!!! Indians should stay in India.
Then you have the cultural Caste system which is worse than Apartheid since it entrenched in Indian culture (ie, you cannot repeal a culture).”

To this I replied:

“Not to mention trafficking Indian children to Israel to be used as food:
RAWsTraffickingOfIndianChildrenDOTblogspotDOTcom

With Iran, Iraq and Syria deprived of any nuclear capabilities, Israel can start using their children as food.

Indians by and large do stay in India — only a tiny fraction has migrated out of India. Until the 19th century, travel by Indians outside India was considered polluting and was forbidden; both the young Mahatama Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were required to do a long penance and undergo purification before being allowed back into society on their return from England. It is the Europeans who have taken over and devastated the world — entire continents such as North and South America, Australia and Africa that filth like you inhabit. How will India get rid of filth like you without nuclear weapons?”

For India’s nuclear forces, getting rid of filth like Manmohan Singh and RAW — collaborators with the European enemy — is just as important as getting rid of European filth.

Peter, why do you keep apologizing for Iran? So what if they are pursuing nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons are nasty and nobody should have them. In fact, nobody should have nuclear energy. But if the US, Israel, Pakistan, and India can have them, so should Iran. By apologizing for Iran, you are accepting imperialist parameters of discourse.

The lying politicians, press, and pundits will continue trying to demonize Iran until they can change its regime or at least bomb it back to the Stone Age (Iran is currently in the Medieval Era!). The reason why the US has left N. Korea alone is exactly because they developed the bomb! The US is a bully. Bullies are cowards by default and they only pick on the weak. If Iran had given Snowden asylum, you would be sure they would have been bombed by now. But Russia is a different story. It can fight back!

The reason why the so-called left is so weak in this country is because they are constantly reactive to the right wing (I include our war-monger-in-chief in that category). In a personal relationship one never gains any power if one is always defensive and apologetic. This is also true on a broaded scope such as public discourse.

One more thing … By apologizing for Iran, you are accepting that Iran is, for some unknown reason, unfit to possess nuclear weapons. I have asked people here over and over to tell me why it is that Iran should not have nuclear weapons. They answer is deafening silence…

The August IAEA Report on Iran: Key Takeaways
Arms Control NOW
8/28/2013 (IAEA report at link)

While Iran has increased its stockpile of 3.5% enriched Uranium, its stockpiles of 20% enriched uranium grew 4 kilos over a three month period, now at 185.8 kilos, below the 240-250 for just one bomb, and far below the 90% enriched U-235 needed for a bomb. Iran’s start up date for its Arak reactor has stalled, and its high-tech centrifuges are offline.

FreeSpirit, I’m surprised that you get a deafening silence – here in Britain you would immediately be told that the Iranians “have repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the earth”. Which is, of course, another gross distortion of the truth that has become accepted as fact simply because everyone repeats it as fact.

Personally, I am agnostic on the subject of whether the Iranians want to acquire a nuclear deterrent. I can see why they would – they are surrounded by six nuclear-armed countries, none of which is their friend. And all of those countries insist that *they* need to have a nuclear weapons because they’re “essential to their security”. So, on that basis there’s a very strong case for Iran to have them. (Plus, I’ve read that the nuclear arsenal the Iranians are most afraid of is Pakistan’s – if it should fall into the hands of apocalypse-minded Sunni extremists.)

Equally, I can see why they wouldn’t. As we are always being told, Iran is a theocracy and the grand ayatollah who is its supreme leader has made it clear that Islam condemns nuclear weapons. If only the supreme leader of Britain was a clergyman, we’d get rid of our nuclear arsenal too!

@ Huw
If only Americans were as enlightened as the Brits! I am Iranian and know that nobody there threatened to wipe Israel off the map. The Zionist propagandists deliberately mistranslated something that had been said 30 something years ago! But assuming that Iran has threatened to attack Israel, that argument is childish at best. First Iran is no match for US of Israel and the mullahs have no death wish (if they attack Israel in any form, they will be wiped off the map within minutes). Second, don’t Israel and the US constantly threaten to attack Iran? So they should give up their programs. Finally, there is one country that has wiped another country off the map in that region and that is: ISRAEL!!! Isn’t Israel a good candidate for nuclear disarmament?

@FreeSpirit- While I agree with you that it’s hypocritical of the West to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons, I have to disagree with your definition of “apologizing.” Mr. Hart is simply debunking a false MSM narrative by pointing out the truth that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons. This is NOT an apology for anything. It’s simply a presentation of facts.

@TeeJae
OK. Maybe I’m choosing the wrong expression here but it’s for the lack of a better one. What I’m trying to say is that trying to prove Iran isn’t pursuing nuclear weapons buys right into that very imperialist narrative which is hypocritical and a double-standard.

As always,and this is a typical zionist ploy.Get them to prove that they don’t have or don’t want etc…You can’t prove a negative !So the game always goes on in perpetuity ,which is what they really want.

This is an email I sent to FAIR today about part of the ‘Counterspin’ broadcast Friday, 27 September, that uses some of the text at the beginning of this article:

“It’s been transmitted now, but I noticed an improvement that could have been made to your item on Iran’s nuclear work broadcast this Friday, 27 September, on KPFA.

Within a pair of dashes I have added my suggestion:

‘. . . Iran is suspected by some governments – but NOT the US government – of having a nuclear weapons program . . .’ (from 4’07).

I just thought the point is enhanced by drawing attention to the US Federal pan-agencies assessment, made in Clapper’s written & oral reports to Congress both this January/February & last year, that Iran has not even DECIDED to have a nuclear weapons development PROGRAM, let alone embarked on such WORK. (It is reported, but I am not qualified to judge, that some of Iran’s current work is so-called dual-use, that it can be applied to both nuclear power generation & developing a nuclear weapon.)

I pointed this out to you in perhaps spring last year, & I have been pleased to hear your reports consistently making this plain. I just thought a small but significant trick was missed in Friday’s text.”

The Washington Post is notorious for misrepresenting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Just today they published an opinion piece by Democratic Senator Robert Menendez in which he refers to “Iran’s nuclear weapons program” and “Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons” without any comment or correction. It’s outrageous!